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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






1 




AN EPISTOLARY ADDRESS 



OF 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1830, by James Day, 
in the Clerk's office of the U. S. District Court of 'Maine. 



LE^W ISTON : 
PRINTED BY J. A. SMITH. 

^^ /^ I860- 















PREFACE 



In offering a work of this kind to the public, I feel that some apology is due 
from me. 

I have not in view a literary fame, for I know my inabilities. But as woe 
is unto the prophets that cry peace, peace, when there is no peace, I dare not 
say I have no wish to make a noise in the world, although a life of peace and 
quiet be preferable. 

I do not expect to present these truths in so flowery language as a more 
learned man might do, but if I succeed in making myself understood, it is all 
that I expect, living as I do in a literary world, and in the infancy of a spirit- 
ual doctrine. 

I write you these lines of demarcation, on the true and false hire of the gos- 
pel labor, hoping hereby to reflect some light upon the shaded path of the 
Gurneyites, that the necessity of the inward hire, may dispense with the out- 
ward hire. 

If I understand Gumey, the founder of this sect, he has this external hire in 
view, and yet, his followers honestly practice better than he ignorantly preaches. 
I oppose Gurney, to show his party that the coming generation would nat- 
urally suppose they practice as he has preached. As the coming generations 
could have no knowledge of a parties' works, except by their leader's precepts, 
or a little macabee history or tradition, said to have come from their time. 

And as much as in my power it lies, I will endeavor to bring my arguments 
to bear comprehensively upon the point in view. 

Uprooting the thistle from the ground. 
That hereafter a thistle may not be found ; 
Thus the thistle being burned when bound, 
God will purify the church and make it sound. 
Realising as well wo might, a thing ao pla'n, 
That the devil with a footing would be coming agiiin. 
And that ho has a footing at the present day, 
In the Gurney society none can gainsay. 
It is Gurneyites and Wilborites the modern flodgo, 
, That has broken Ihe gocd old friends' from hedge. 



A.DDRESS. 



CHAPTER I. 

To THE Society of Gurneyites : 

Believing the practice of giving and receiving an external maintenance as 
pay for gospel labor, to be an error and an evil oppression against the truth, 
and contrary to the teachings of Christ, — «' Freely ye have received, freely 
give," I deem it my duty to use all my influence, however small that influ- 
ence may be, in trying to remove this great evil and common error of the dark 
age of apostacy from this society. 

AVhen I see this Church, the purest of God's Churches on earth, taking this 
incipient step to the great evil of countenancing of the^hireling, I feel constrained 
to prophesy that she, too, must die, like Corasin and Bethsadie, who like them 
have known Chnst to be nigh unto her. 

If I should neglect to raise my voice against such a course, I should prove a 
traitor to the truth, and to the future prosperity of my country, and should be 
numbered with the heretic and pharisee. 

I do not wish to be understood to say, that the Church to whom this epistle 
is addressed has fully adopted this great evil, but the first step has been taken* 
the precept has gone forth, which, if put in practice, and still sufifered to grow, 
must, ere long, fasten the evil upon her forever. 

I find by the history of other Churches, as far as I have been able to learn, 
that this error was not introduced all at once, but that it was done step by step. 
If the devil gets a foothold, he is quite sure to keep gaining ground, until he 
gets possession of the whole 

Placing too much confidence in learned and influential men, and not think- 
ing enough for ourselves, prepares the mind to receive the doctrines of impostors 
and to allow a hireling ministry to be imposed upon us. 

Such I believe to be the present state of this church ; she is like Israel of old, 

with whom God was well nigh angry, because they asked a king, that they 

might be like all the nations*. Shall we seek for an earthly king who labors 

for extenial pay ? Shall we allow ourselves to be led by mortal man ? Or, 

* See Firft Samuel, viii Ohipter, 7th aad 3tb verses. ; . 



will we not rather let the grace of God have its perfect work in our hearts, and 
be guided by that spirit which leaps into all truth till the righteousness of 
Christ shall cover all these things as the water cover the seas. 

Those ministers who preach for external pay, study to please the people who 
employ them; but those M'ho look to God for their maintenance, study to 
show themselves approved unto God. 

The hireling, contrary to the gospel, seeks the external emoluments of his 
calling ; the true gospel minister seeks humility, the grace of God, and the 
in-gathering of souls unto Zion. 

The hireling spends his time in seeking for anecdotes to make the people 
smile ; in reading profane history, and by such means, and from such soiu-ces, 
in connection with some text from the Bible, very ingeniously prepares his own 
sermon, and contends that he has a right to deliver this previously prepared ser- 
mon, this so called gospel, at all set times, pretending, and perhaps imagining 
that the Lord has required it of his hand. 

But such are easily detected, as in Deut. xviii,-22. And as were the seven 
sons of Seva, who presumed to preach Christ and Paul, whom they knew 
nothing about. 

Christ himself has given the following, as a test of the gospel minister : — 
** By their fruits ye shall know them." If they produce bad fruit, strife, 
division, worldly-mindedness, &c., we must condemn them as bad preachers t 
and if no fruit is produced then they are like the fig-tree, which withered under 
the curse of Christ. The hirelings may continue to instruct and leam their 
congregation, and yet never come to the knowledge of the truth as it was in 
Jesus the power of which is of God and unto salvation. 

This is the true ministers' sword, and the weapon of his warfare, which is 
mighty in the spirit ; to the gathering of the untoward generation as his hire. 

The literal knowledge of Christ, and the past experience of the world is no 
more profitable to the minister of the gospel, than to the private individual. 

They are both men of God, if Christ dwell in them and they in him, and 
should be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. 

I am bold to assert that any relience, whatever, on this outward preparation, 
is death to the minister of the gospel as the letter killeth. 

Such as have this outward knowledge, have a double need of bridling their 
tongues, and guarding their discourse, lest by smooth words and fair 
speeches they deceive others, and think themselves something, even when 
Christ is not formed in them. Thus they measure themselves by themselves 
and compare themselves among themselves, to keep up a lifeless gabbling, run- 
ning to waste the precious time that should be devoted to the inward adoration of 
God. I feel fully confident that many a well designed minister, in consequence 
of poverty in this outward knowledge, and an unwillingness to trust in God, 
has made shipwreck of faith ; has left the plow handles to look to the furrow, 
and thus unfitted themselves for the kingdom, the glorious work of the gos- 
pel ministry. /.'* (7-*^- ^*^ /^ 2- / • — ^ Jj/, 

The minister that is well versed in this outward knowledge, and puts too 
muoh reliance thereon, is sure to run out of the divme life, (that would pro- 



duce the same life-giving influence in the hearts of his hearers,) and is liable to 
run into a lifeless form of words. He treats his audience as satan has treated 
him, making them believe that there is no diiFerence between a formal ministry, 
and a spiritual ministry. 

Thus lajdng the foundation for the study of books, for which study he de- 
mands a surplus of time, for which surplus of time he demands an outward 
maintenance. 

Paul exhorts Timothy to study to show himself approved unto God. • None 
should vainly try to prove this the study of books. It would be Hke trying to 
prove that Jerusalem* went out from among the mountains, that were round 
about her, into the wilderness, to John, to the river Jordan, to be baptised. 

Now Jerusalem was a big walled city, literally speaking, and it would have 
been more than a handfuU for John, so we must spiritualise Jerusalem. 

And would to God that in this gospel day more honest hearts were more 
willing to spiritualize the gospel preparation and the gospel pay, and less to pat- 
ronize the hireling in his preparation of the so called gospel, and that we could 
meet more faithful witnesses for God, among the ministers. I believe the pres- 
ent to be a day in which a spiritual doctrine would spread like the wind, and 
in which the shadows of the race horses of formal doctrines would be found 
going round, and round, and round, for the very reason that their riders would 
be confounded at the speed of the spiritual race horse, and the integrity of his 
rider, and the power with which he would be invested to reap from the churches 
and world, those that are tired of sectarianism, and that disbelieve in the base- 
less doctrines of the different churches. 

I beheve that many may be found in the land, who would rejoice at the 
privilege of uniting themselves with a Christian band, the bonds of which 
would be love, and love is the very gates into the new and spiritual Jerusalem, 
and love in us is the fulfilling of the whole law. By the gates of love and 
mercy we are baptised into the peaceable kingdom of Christ, and may indi- 
viduality grow from one degree of grace to another unto a temple or house 
in God, and there sit down with the saints on earth to celebrate God's praise. 

This we may do, without doing violence to our own consciences, and without 
submitting our wills to men's creeds. 

The Lord of Lords, our Lord, our Alpha and our Omega will dictate our 
consciences, and we will submit our wills to the will of God. 

The reader will at once see that I take the Scriptures in a spiritual sense, 
as I am convinced that they are nothing more than figures, through which 
the Prophets and Apostles wished to convey to us an adequate idea of the 
inward and spiritual dispensation of God to the soul of man. 

We might as well give the wagon a few long oats to make the horse go, 
as to apply Scripture rules to the external man either to benefit the soul or 
to pay it for gospel labor, which would be feeding the body to make the soul 
preach. It is true that ti^e thrashing the wagon sometimes frightens the horse. 
This, however, depends upon the nature and training of the beast ; the body 
may be trained to the outward observance of religion, and may continue therein. 
* See Matthew third Chapter fifth Terse. 



e 

from habit, whilst the soul remains untouched and as unchanged, as the skin 
of the ethiopian, or the spots of the leopard. 

Oh ! foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey 
the truth. Joseph J. Gurney's Peculiarities, page 173, informs us that " the 
Apostle Paul, when addressing his corinthiau converts, asserts the claim upon 
them which when so engaged, he clearly possessed, for such a provision of carnal 
things as his necessities might require." Also on page 175, he says : — " It is 
therefore a practice generally prevailing in the society of friends, to pay the ex- 
pense of a minister's journeys, and to maintain them during the course of their la- 
bor," and thus, he says '• it is not only acknowledged but felt, that the laborer 
is worthy of his hire ; or, as the sentiment is expressed in the gospel of Mat- 
thew that the workman is worthy of his meat." Such are Gurney's constructions 
on 1st Cor. ix 11, and Matt, x, 10. In the first reference carnal things, conse- 
quently in the last reference carnal meat the minister's hire. I ask the candid 
readers what inference one should gather from these infernal suggestions, view- 
ing them in a literal sense, that we do the peculiarities no injustice. Shall we 
gather the idea, that the minister as a hire is at liberty to receive carnal things 
to the ministering unto his carnal necessities, that he may leave his shoes at 
whose door he pleases ? 

Or shall we gather the idea that the minister as a hire, is at liberty to take 
the meat, or body of Christ, intended as food to maintain the soul, and make it 
the meat of a beast, taking it to feed the mortal body on, making it carnal and 
a gospel hire. The last idea would be presumptuous, whilst the first would 
please me best. 

According to Gurney's theories the minister might seek lust, to maintain the 
body of sin, to the soul's destruction, I would direct the readers to Webster's 
Unabridged Dictionary for the definition of " carnal things," that they might 
fully understand what Gurney imagines that the Apostles' outward necessities 
required. 

And if the reader finds that carnal is fleshly, and that fleshly is the animal 
nature of man, or the devil hide and all, they need not be surprised. Paul 
said, " who shall dehver me from the body of this death ? j" And Ananias as 
his hire, was able to deliver Paul. 

And will we allow the minister to press his way into our outward flock, taking 
from thence a sheep, as his hire, under false pretence that such a course is in ac- 
cordance with Paul's writings, and not at variance with the commands of Christ, 
<• But go ye rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ;" such a course in such 
a Church, is sheer mockery, it is more presumptuous than the Church that takes 
a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine, and sits down to eat the sacrament under 
the pretence that they are eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ. 

Such a literal construction upon Scripture is an insult to a civilized nation, 
and absurd in the face and eyes of an enlightened intelligence, and an abom- 

*See to be carnally minded is death, and the death is the same, it needs no comments* 
it was as essential that Taul be delivered from this death in others, when laid upon him 
through the necessity of the gospel, as from the same death in himself. 

tSee Phillipians, iii,--14, 15and 12th versea, and compare the last clause of the 15th 
verse with Acts ix--17. 



ination in the sight of God, not having the word of God for its foundation.* 
When we take into consideration the church that claims this external 
maintenance, the evil is paramount to that of the darker churches — linking 
church and State. It equals saying, sell all thou hast outwardly of this world's 
goods, and give it to the poor, or to saying and not doing. If we could go to 
heaven by way of the outward " cross," and by hating our fathers, moth- 
ers, brothers and sisters j — yea, and the life of our own corporeal bodies also, 
then we might count ourselves worthy of the outward meat, and maintenance, 
as our gospel hire. 

This false theory, that the minister for his missionary, or gospel labor possesses 
an undeniable claim on those in whose behalf he labors, for the support of his 
outward necessities, may be found on page 1 75 of the work above referred to. 
This theory was created in Gumey's dark and selfish heart, and he, by a mis- 
construction of Scripture, introduced it into New England Yearly-Meeting of 
friends, and he being a great man, was upheld therein. The introduction of 
this false theory into said church, has helped to divide in Jacob, and scatter in 
Israel, and the society of friends in said N. E. is not what it once was, a se- 
lect body of pure Christians, disbelieving in the imposing of tithes upon any. 

But this awful monster has been forced amongst them, and a direct opening 
has been made for the introduction of priest-craft within our borders. 

Preaching and praying for money, or an outward maintenance, is in direct 
controversy with the commands of Christ, to take hence these things, and make 
not my Father's house a house of merchandise, a den of thieves. If we give an 
inch, an ell may be taken, as no man can tell all the expense of journeying 
and of a maintenance, or how economical or extravagant a preacher might be. 
A man might become too lazy to work and so travel for the sake of the main- 
tenance and what he could see. This false theory has been a small part of the 
means of the division in this once worthy body of Christians, that God owned 
and abundantly blessed in Fox's day in the covenant of love. 

Sectarianism has spoiled the garb of inocensy, which covered the early mem- 
bers of that denomination, when they were led to the slaughter, and their 
wives and children robbed of the last ccw to pay the old congregational devil- 
fee ; all for the simple fact that conscience would not psnnit them to pay one 
cent for preaching. 

It does seem to me, that if this were not the hour and power of darkness in 

this beloved branch of our Zion, she would arise and shake herself, and put on 

her clean white robe again, and build up the breach and heal the wound. There 

is yet a balm in gilead, and a physician there ; she has but sinned against the 

grace of God, and her brethren, and that she may return unto them is my humble 

desire and prayer unto her,t that she stain her hands no more with that blood, 

the nobility of soul that her noble predecessors in the truth, outwardly bled to 

sustain. She has been believed in and obeyed the light, therefore the light 

which she has and still does possess, will prove her greater condemnation, if she 

prefer the darkness of Gurney's theories, to the doctrines of the first founders 

*See Arts, x Chapter, 36 verse. 

t See Luke, xiv Chapter, 26, and 27, verses. 

t See 2dcI Corinthians v Chapter and 20 Tersej and let John, Iv Chapter. 20 verse. 



8 

of her Christian religion, in whose lives or journals not one word or deed can 
be found of the ministers claiming an external maintenance as pay for his gos- 
pel labor. 

If we give a literal meaning to the passages of Scriptm-e relating to the hire 
of the gospel, we should give a literal meaning, also, to the words of Christ, 
when he said : — "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." 
Then the traveling preacher might carry a steel sword for his greater safety, 
and the nation might have a regiment of fighting Quakers. And if they want 
a revelation, they might banish one of their Gurney Johns, off on to some isl- 
and. And as the diminishing of the Jews enriched the Gentiles, I should think 
that the darkness of the Gurney church, might serve as a glass for some of 
the other hireling churches to see themselves in ; and if this be the result you 
need not regret this sight of your condition. God is with me to preserve 
bread for you, although I cry seven years a mighty famine, one year is passed 
I was disowned twelvth month last. Joseph J. Gurney has gone to his long 
home; yes, he has gone to a just God to receive the due reward for the deeds done 
in tl e b )dy , and if he were here- in time, I would not lay my hand on the Lord's 
annointed. No, not I, and yet I would cut off the skirt of his garment, and 
hold it up to the world, comparing it with the skirts of that seamless garment 
that the blessed Savior wore. 

Also, in my next volume, I would rattle his pitcher and shake his spear, and 
call out to his guard to know why they had not protected their king whilst he 
slept. AVhen his unsoundness was carrying forward its ravishing work in our 
yearly meeting, a minister of the monthly meeting of which I was a member, 
was very largely drawn out in three public discourses, warning friends against 
the unsoundness of Gurney's doctrine, even as pointed as the man of God 
proclaimed against the altar at Bethel. Of this I am a witness, and I think 
he %vrote Gurney on said \msoundness, but sorrowful as it is to say, I fear that 
he did not go directly home, leaving the subject, after delivering the Lord's 
message, but I fear that he stopped by the way to see how the scale would turn 
in the dividing quarterly meeting near Wilbur's residence, and finally turned in 
to eat and drink with the old Prophet at Bethel, that was for Gurney's false 
altar, for which I fear he has been met by the lion in the way, and torn and 
slain, and buried in the sepulchre of the old Prophet. If so, God only is able 
to raise him, and quicken all dead bodies that are deposited in said sepulchre, 
when they come in contact with his dry bones. My desire for him, with all 
others that are at ease in Zion, in this respect, if so it be that they are at ease, 
Ls that they might awake from their sleep, and arise from the dead, that Christ 
might give them light. I do not say that such are dead in the life of rehgion, 
we are not guilty of the death of the whole world, because we have offended 
in one point, and that, too, in part, ignorantly and innocently, and perhaps con- 
scientiously. I have the most unbounded charity for most of the members of 
the quarterly meeting, of which I was a member ; they are as bone of my bone 
and flesh of my flesh,— the minister of whom I speak, in particular. And yet 
what is everybody's business is supjwsed by some to be nobody's business ; if 



tHs "be the condition of this quartaiy meeting, that they have thus passively 
complied, and waited the Lord's time to act ; I hope that they will act well 
their part now, remembering that here all the honor lies ; and the dear brother 
to whom I allude, must remember that Christ died for the whole world. And now 
I appeal directly to the Quarter, of which I was a member, to know if they 
are not sensible of having communed too much w^ith the old Prophet, and if 
they have not of late had their eyes opened by the brazen serpent being lifted 
up amongst them, whereby they can see that there are some within their bor- 
ders that would even uphold the devil in the minister's gallery, if he were re- 
lation, or a man of wealth, and a liberal education, and there may be such, and 
influential men too, in all the Quarters, But space in this volume will not 
permit that I write as I might ; I have already enlarged beyond all expectation 
in those painful truths, painful to pen, as they are in the present position of the 
church, against many whom I most tenderly love, even as Jesus loved Lazarus, 
and Martha, and Mary, and wept because they said^ "If thou hadst been here 
our brother had not died," so do I love jon, with aU willingness to help. I am 
comforted in remembering that it was for the glory of God that he was not 
there. And I am thankful, not that I was not present in the spirit of the 
Lord, in the time of the division, to hdp him whom I compare to Lazarus ; 
but rather that I am now favored with time and opportimity to clear my skirts 
from the blood of Gumey's unsound doctrines ; and to comfort the Marthas 
and Marys, in the vineyard of the Lord, and church of the most high God. 

I am aware that there is a great liabihtj of the traditional fathers being so 
blinded that they will not hear, although I call loudly for them to come forth, 
if they do not have any knowledge of the way, and wliat I say, they caimot 
ihear it, and if they do not listen they cannot understand, but I do hope, and 
Kot against hope either, that they will be so blessed of God as to be made to 
see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and believe with their hearts, that this 
address may provoke very many, if not all of them, to a manifestation of 
brotherly love. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FALSE HIKE SHOWN UP — MADE TO SEE ITSELF AS IT IS SEEK, 

We know from our own conrictions, full, complete and well. 
That we should be preparing to escape the gates of hell ; 
No saint, or einner like me, need this a\iful warning tell. 
The scenery is pictured from the place where we dwell. 

We against the light have gone in open rebellion, 

And driven o'er the cataract our glorious earnelian ; 

And received in his place temporal blessings to our derision, 

And sacrificed them on the altar of carnal things to ouf division. 

1st Corinthians ill, 3. " For ■whereas there is among you envying and strife, 
and division, are ye not carnal, and walk as men."* 

Should I inquire through this passage of scripture a little after your welfare, 
would it be too strictly marking your deserting the truth ! If not, then suffer 
me in a word to try your foundation, and to examine the foundation of your 
hopes. Did not God build you up from George Fox's day r And was not to 
be Christlike your foundation ? and was not love your hopes' foundation ? Did 
not Christ pray for those that despitefully use him, and persecute him ? and are 
you not taught to do the same ? and are you not informed through the Scrip- 
tures, and by the Spirit, that you should not press the conscience of a brother ? 
and that brother ought not to go to law vdth brother, and that, too, before the 
world ? Did not the world nail the Savior to the cross, after he had long 
pronounced woe upon the lawyers for their shutting up the kingdom, and bind- 
ing heavy burdens ? And now will you set the world upon the judgment seat 
in matters of church government ? Ask your gods, and though they be heathen 
gods, they'll tell you no. 

Then why is it that we hear of strife and divisiou in your borders, in that 
noble building that God erected in Fox's day ? Did Peter strive with Ana- 
nias and Saphira ? did he not tell them plainly that they had lied unto the 
holy ghost, and not unto men ? 

Should the Gumey party take the question, has the Wilberites offended 
against the holy ghost and not against us, home to themselves, could they 
answer it in the affirmative without blushing and confusion of face ? I ask, 
did the Wilberites even aim at the Christlike man, our first foundation as 
friends, or did they aim at dissolving the union of brotherly love, the founda- 
tion of all our future hopes? Nay, they never aimed at a righteous man, nor 
at a righteous generation or nation, governed and guided by the holy ghost, but 
the reverse. They did aim at influential leading men, that were determined to up- 
*3ee and please consider bow the word carnal ia uied. 



11 

hold Gurney in his false theories, the smallest of which I am now presenting 
to you, one so small that even the Wilberites, as I understand them, cannot see 
it sufficient to warrant a division, although a burden ; and whether the weapons 
of the Wilber party became carnal, or whether they used them with integrity 
of soul, is not for me to judge. 

A man may be on the right foundation and still abuse his power ; the power 
is of God and not of man. I also live in a remote part of the yearly meeting 
where the transactions of the parties are but little known. It is sufficient for 
me to know at this time that the peculiaiities are held in possession by the 
Giuney party, consequently I leave the rest of Gurney's false theories at pres- 
ent, also the integrity of the Wilber party, and yet I can, and should enquire 
what the result of this strife and division is, and what the end thereof will be. 
I fear that to tell the end thereof from the beginning, took a Wilber Jonah, and 
that it can be seen in Ninevah ; whilst a Peter on the opposite side could not 
predict the end thereof, even at the present day, showing us Ananias and Sa- 
phira in the Wilber party, consequently a union of the two is indispensable for 
their future happiness. 

A Simon to whom Christ said, «' Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired 
to have you,* that he may sift you as wheat : But I have prayed for thee, 
that thy faith fail not ; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brother." 
And at another time, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my 
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it : such an one can tell 
what the result of this strife and division is. It is all summed up in the first 
word of the text, envying. It is felt to the very extremity of the church, and 
will be till the wound is healed. If the union were not broken, or if one party 
were pure, and the other vile, then might the wound heal in time of itself. 
But, as it is, there is much good seed each side of the wound, buried under 
deep suffering. And something must eventually grow out of this seed. It 
•will not die on either side : No, God forbid. 

Notwithstanding the strife and division, according to the decision of the law- 
suit of the parties, has caused envying at home on one side, and abroad on the 
other, yet God will hasten the day, as the parties are willing, when this envy- 
ing will be turned into jealousy, each party against themselves, and the jealousy 
will be given to the fowls of heaven, that in the house of God quarreling may 
not be longer heard. In this envying, reason leads me to believe that the Wil- 
ber party who got beat at home, or in the immediate vicinity of the division, 
would envy the other party in its frowning upon them. 

And experience and observation teaches me that in the distant quarterly mee^ 
ings from the immediate vicinity of the division, not one-tenth of the individ- 
ual members know scarce anything of the facts in the proceedings of the case ; 
but as a body, they waited the decision of the lawsuit with no other intention 
than to pin their faith to the sleeves of the party that beat. And those that 
could not conscientiously go with said Gurney party, are scorned, rejected and 
envied by those that freely went with them. 

I want to be understood that these are facts that need no proof more than 
• See Friends. 



12 

llieir own weight, in the moral, rational, and intelligent_mind : and still they 
have my experience and observation to witness, and thus here we are, six- 
eighths, or thereabouts, of the quarterly meetings, comprising New England 
3'early meeting of Friends, that don't know our right hand from our left, in 
reference to the facts relating to the division in said yearly meeting. And yet, 
undivided as quarterly meetings, we have chosen the Gurney party as our 
right-hand man, and run into their fold to be fleeced. But on taking off" the 
fleece, the shearers will find that there are a goodly number of black sheep 
that are envied by said Gurney party. This, too, experience and observation 
has taught me. And yet I could BKtt-bear this envying in the subordinate and 
undivided quarters, if it were not for the division, and ungodly decision of the 
world in the yearly meeting. If this meeting were once set up in the authori- 
ty of truth, under a free and spiritual dispensation, and had so lost its power of 
discernment as to be in doubt whether Gurney be for God, or whether Wilber 
be for God, then they should have waited until a deliverer came, and not have 
gone before the world. In this the Wilber party might have expected to have 
had their pearls trampled under foot, and themselves divided from the union 
that might otherwise have prevailed through their long suffering and obedience. 

One of the twigs of this root of bitterness, that has caused this division and 
envying, is the principle of an external maintainance of the gospel minister, as 
pay for his gospel labor. And, in this, the Gurney party have departed from 
the spiritual maintenance of the minister, in misconstruing that portion of 
scripture meant for that pui-pose. 

And now in closing this chapter, I would ask, Avould it look strange to said 
Gurney party, if I should say that God has not that place in their hearts, that 
he otherwise would have, if they implicitly confided in his spirit to make a way 
for both their outward and inward maintenance ? Or would it be strange if 
I should say, that those that indulge most largely in receiving and giving this 
external hire, are church dividing, hell sustaining, soul damning, and God 
defying taxgatherers ? These are the very gates of hell, that the Gurney church 
has got to shun. 

It is true, entering the first gate, and taking the first glass, has not made her 
drunk. 

But it is the direct inroad to the drunkards den. In principle it is the same, 
and she might drink four times as largely in this external, minister mainten- 
ance pay ; and be dead drunk. It is all the work and worship of satan. 



CHAPTER in. 

THE INWARD AND SPIRITUAL MAINTENANCE OP THE MINISTER RECOMMENDED 
TO THE GURNEYITES. 

St. John, vi. 5.3 : " Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
his blood, ye have no life in you." Mathew x. 10 : <* For the workman is 
worthy of his meat." 

To those who wish to take these two passages of- scripture, for the outward 
maintenance of the minister, as to the Gumeyites, it may look presumptuous 
to put them together, and to make the assertion, that we are to eat the flesh of 
the Son of Man, and to.be clothed with his spirit, as our maintenance in the 
gospel labor. 

The priesthood typified the gospel in this to an iota, and cannot be prefigured 
to an external purpose ; neither in choosing, nor in maintaining and hiring. 

Under the law the priests had their portion in the beasts of the field, and in 
the fruits and incomes thereof. And the people also offered half a sheckel of 
money for the service of the tabernacle* Such was the line of the priesthood. 

In the line of the gospel, the minister has the bread and meat of heaven, re- 
ferred to in the text, to eat, as his maintenance in the gospel labor. With this 
bread, and the clothing of the spirit, he is strengthened, and enabled to reap 
the carnal-mindedness of the people as his hire. Not half a sheckel, as under 
the law, but a whole sheckel, as a whole offering is now offered,t in which the 
people are made perfect, even as Jesus was. 

The above references are confirmed by Christ's sermon in the Mount. Math- 
ew vi. 1, 24, 25, and 31. The first verse : "Take heed that ye do not your 
alms before men, to be seen by them : otherwise ye have no reward of your 
Father which is in Heaven." The original meaning of the word alms was 
money, but when applied to us in its religious and gospel use, it refers to the 
experience and confession of the convert. 

If we notice the sermon in the Mount in its literal sense, which I consider 
would be taking the pattern to make a pattern by, instead of taking it to make 
an article by, we get an extra store of patterns, or forms of godlyness, with- 
out any true store or abiding article of faith. 

If we notice the word alms in its original meaning, as is used in this sermon 
in the mount, (Mathew vi. 1,) 1 cannot see how the gentile hearers can give 
said passage a due hearing, and then publicly raise a tax to maintain their min- 
isters, expecting a reward in true happiness for so doing. The 24th and 25th 
verses taken in an outward sense, must refer to the minister, at least half the 

* See Exodus, xxx, 15, 16. 
t See Ist Corinthians, xiii, 10. 



14 

time: 2ith, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon: 25th, "Th'erefbre I say 
unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall 
drink, nor yet for your bodies, what ^'•e shall put on. The 25th and 3 1st verses 
are alike : 32d, " For after all these things do the gentile seek." Math. 5, 
** Go not into the way of the Gentiles." 

I have proved to you from Math, vi, 1. 24:, 25 and 26, by making the 32d 
the 26th, v.-hich I did by proving the 31st the 25th, I have proved that the 
Gentiles served for meats, drinks and clothing, or a maintenance. This I proved 
from the 25th and 26th, and in connecting the 24th, •' Ye cannot serve God 
and Mammon," with the 25th, " Therefore I say unto you, take no thought 
for these things," I prove that serving for these things is serving for mammon, 
which is money. And if such a maintenance, or hire, (one being as appropriate 
as the other, in a literal sense,) be defrayed in a public capacity, I apply to 
the 1st verse, and prove that the gentile hearers, by hiring their ministers, lose 
their reward in Heaven. 

And if the Gentiles lost their reward, you won't be likely to fare much bet- 
ter. No, unless you repent, and give and receive the true hire, and seek the 
true mamtenance, you will all likewise perish. " He that eateth and diinketh 
unworthily, eatheth and drink eth to himself damnation, not desiring the Lord's 
body. Your father knoweth that ye have need of ail the outward things;" 
but is not the body of sin fully reaped from the people, which it could not be 
under the law, more than all these things ? or, is not the inward raaintenance 
more than the outward ? Need there be any stronger evidence produced, that 
the minister in serving for an outward maintenance, serves mammon;* regard- 
less of Heaven's maintenance and protection, as set forth in the gospel rule.f in 
which the milk of the word is the milk of the flock, that the minister is to eat 
of, that he may give it to his flock sweet ahd warm ? 

And this milk is not the milk of tlie flock's flock, j neither is it for the out- 
ward man as represented in Gurney's Peculiarities, page 173. If we are under 
an inward dispensation, we should be under an inward pay. It was so in the 
outward, an outward dispensation and an outward pay. Therefore, if we wish 
to acknowledge the inward dispensation, as set forth in the first of this chapter, 
and recommended in the sermon in the Mount, we must leave the outward 
maintenance, and the outward construction of the scripture, counting them a 
mere cipher, a dead letter, just what they were intended for. Otherwise, we 
put works before faith, and throw away grace, claiming temporal blessings in 
ts place, and leave our places in Christ, and go headlong toward the tail of the 
class. Missing a word of as great importance as the word of God. And if we 
miss this word need we but expect to miss our true hire, the iuAvard scheckel, 
the body of sin, the carnal-mindedness of man ? Lest some sliould say that in 
serving God for my maintenance, and the people for their carnal things, as my 
gospel hire, I serve God and Mammon, I would have them take the sole of an 
unbuffed shoe, and spot it with blacking, then taking oil of vitriol, take the 

* See Matthew Ti. 23. 
t See Matthew vi. 22. 
%S<iti l3t CoriQtliians is. 7. 



blacking all out, and see how mncli of it they can find, — the more blacking 
the more vitriol ; God's grace is sufncient for every work. And to try another 
experiment, they may enter a clnttered door-yard, reap the weeds, pile tl e 
trash together and burn it, fence off a garden and sow it, leach the ashes and 
put them on the garden, and wash themselves, using the soap, and see if they 
are not as clean as before ; having planted in their characters, a most precious 
gem, that will go to the Judgment Bar with them. 



CHAPTEK IV. 

WHAT THE TRUE GOSPEL MINISTER MIGHT REASONABLY EXPECT TO RECEIVE, 
ASIDE FROM HIS SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS AND GOSPEL HIRE. 

In this day of plenty in temporal blessings, the true gospel minister might 
expect to receive a support of the external life, in full for his every want be- 
yond his own means. Such are the generous and humanly sentiments of the 
christian ; such is the bond of love, that even the world itself would not see 
the true gospel minister suffer in this respect. 

The minister not only plants the gospel, but he helps plant industry, tem- 
perance, and morality, whereby our alms-houses, prisons, and jails are emptied 
of their occupants, in whom vices of all sorts previously prevailed, producing 
poverty. 

And when the minister's mind is thus rightly engaged, his hands would be 
found at their manual labor, that precept and example might correspond, then 
would precept sink deeper, and last longer in its impressions upon the minds of 
the people ; its theology being purely of a divine origin. If, in consequence 
of accident or misfortune, such a minister be straightened in his outward cir- 
cumstances, his friends in need, and neighbors in de>.d, should lend him a help- 
ing hand, to be returned at his command ; or if they are able, they should off- 
set it against the dollars that he has saved the rich by his examples, paving the 
way for the poor to support themselves without the rich. And if sickness, or 
a call to labor in the cause of God, debar him from his external livlihood for 
himself and family, and his means be scanty for theii comforts in life, they 



16 

might expect the sympathies of all concerned, and should also receive from the 
right source, what ere their vicissitudes in life might so require. If the ministers 
of the gospel were really what they should be, and when needy did not receive, 
or not needy and did receive, except to bestow elsewhere,* I believe that condem- 
nation would abide with the giver and receiver, that they would be partly guilty 
with Cain in the death of Abel; for a minister to have more than he needs, to take 
care of, would tend to his spiritual death, as that of Abel ; and it would be 
his impure receiving and not offering. And for the rich tax-gatherer whom 
God appoints, by the dictation of conscience, to withold when God requires 
him to assist the needy minister, would make him (the tax-gatherer) equally 
guilty with Cain, who asked God, " Am I my brother's keeper." 

Cain kept back part of his offering, or it would have been accepted, the rich 
tax-gatherer of the present day keeps back part, by accusing the chmch of ow- 
ing the minister a maintenance, by their doing their part as they call it. 

They dont appear to imderstand that " When that which is perfect is come, 
then that which is in part shall be done away," 1st Corinthians, xiii. 10. Cain's 
offering was not accepted of God, and have we any reason to believe ours 
would be, if not required ? Or would it be required if not needed ? If not, 
why do we say that the minister is worthy of it as his hire, or maintenance by 
the church ?t Luke xix. 8. Zaccheus, the Jewish tax-gatherer, said, «' and if 
I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him four 
fold." There we see that Zaccheus came to the noble conclusion to live accord- 
ing to the gospel ; and in his genuine love he vowed or willed to give the half 
of his goods to the poor if required. 

And if the small, rich tax-gatherers of that day, when the gospel becomes 
as pure as it was from the lips of Christ, do not do as Zaccheus done ; also offer- 
ing, as he did, to restore to the church the four fold, for that, kept back by their 
falsely accusing the church of owing the minister a maintenance, they will meet 
the summons unexpectedly ; " this night thy soul shall be required of thee." — 
Then whose shall these things be ? Can he carry them with him to pay the 
debts, or to restore the four fold for that withheld when God required it of his 
hand ? 

Are they not uncertain riches, that may take wings and fly away, leaving 
him as the man without the wedding garment on ? Thus having nothing to 
pay the debt with, although God may forgive him, it is none the less certain, 
he will lose his reward in Heaven,^ that he would have gained by obedience 
to the requirements of God. God is just as able to move the mind of an in- 
dividual to assist a needy minister, as he is to move the mind of the minister 
to preach the gospel. Therefore it is for the satisfaction of our own minds, on 
which our future happiness depends, that we assist the needy minister ; but 
not for aught that they may have done for us. Neither is it because they are 
ministers, but it is because they cannot help themselves at such times, without 
God's thus assisting them. Other\\'ise than this there would be no chimce for 

* See Matthew vi. 1. 

t See Gurney's Peculiarities, page 176. 

t 8eo Ma*tbeK vi. 1. 



17 

obedience to God in this respect, for if it be because they are ministers, then we 
should assist the millionaire, the prodigal, &c. 

I ask, is it strange that an enlightened intelligence should refuse to be in bond- 
age in this external minister-paying church, in this gospel day ; seeing he has 
the promise of freedom indeed, if the truth make him free? 

And, is it not strange, that the church holds so tenaciously to the dogmas 
of the dark ages of the world in this nineteenth century or after haying had 
eighteen-hundred years experience in the school of Christ ? 

And does it not evince a deficiency in the teachers of New England ? Does 
it not show that they have degenerated from Fox's Christlike teaching ? 

So now as I have given duty a fair switch, I trust as phable as Aaron's rod» 
endeavoring thereby to drive Old England's false teachings from our church, I 
will leave it for the candid readers* consideration, committing them, with my- 
self, into the care and protection of a merciful, powerful, and just God, believ- 
ing that I have been in the way of my duty, in so doing. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE TEIJE HIRE OF THE GOSPEL LABOR. 

The reader will understand in the onset, that the hire that I am about to in- 
troduce, is to be effitirely of a carnal nature, which must inevitably have re- 
mained in the minds of the people, had it not been in the love and mercy of 
Go J, ordained as a gospel hire. 

In the plan of salvation, this hire is generally used to purchase a part in the 
first resurrection with Christ, Acts ii. 4. «< And they were all filled with the 
holy ghost," *"on such the second death hath no power," more than it had 
over Christ after his baptism. 

In Corinthians xi. 3, Paul says. . "The head of every man is Christ; (show- 
ing man and woman to be one,) and the head of the woman is the man ; (thus 
showing them divided again) and the head of Christ is God." Thus he presents 
us with man, woman, and Christ ; as a figure of the chxirch ; the woman typ- 

*See B«T«latioiis zz, 6. 



18 

ifying it in the transgression up to the coming of Christ, in which time man 
was its head, and man typifying it before the fall and after the coming of 
Christ, up to his baptism, in which time Christ was its head, and Christ typi- 
fying it after his baptism up to his crucifixion, in which time God and the ho- 
ly spirit is its head. 

In preaching Christ, sons are called from far, and daughters from the ends of 
the earth, and are made one in Christ, a living soul as in the creation, and in 
the birth of Christ up to his baptism. Gten. v. 2, «' Male and female created 
he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam;" first by creation, then 
by adoption. Paul had not attained a part in this oneness with Christ, through 
the baptism of John, whereby a part in the first resurrection might have been 
attained ; but, he said, I was as one bom out of due time. In chis birth he al- 
luded to the baptism of the Holy Ghost, by which he was made free from the 
cares of the law ; which was the knowledge of sin, under which he had to 
gather his bread by the sweat of his brow. Thus, through the laying on of the 
haads of Annanias; Acts ix. 17, the holy ghost was given unto Paul, or un- 
to Saul, which was the woman, making him Paul, or a Christian, and the 
blessings of heaven flowed into his mind more spontaneously than the products 
of the garden of Eden.* In this he could forbear working for himself, as in 1st 
Corinthians ix. 6, and still eat and drink spiritually speaking, which he could 
not do after his transgression in Adam and Evj, in which he incurred things 
carnal and not spiritual, or until Christ's righteousness became his, and until his 
sins were imputed unto Christ, and borne by him on the tree. And those 
mental sins of Paul's, as omitted in Eve and committed in Adam, are the very 
identical things that I wish to introduce as the gospel-laborer's hire ; laying the 
axe at the very root of the tree, as trunk and limb, wc have long been leased to 
trim. And to illustrate this hire: — 

I would suppose a case of two laborers, laboring in the church, as she was, 
from the creation of man, to the resurrection of Christ. In preaching Christ 
crucified and raised from the dead, man is made a quickened spirit, perfect even 
as Christ was perfect, after his baptism. And in supposing the case of the two 
laborers above referred to, we will take the Savior of the world as the first la- 
borer, and suppose him to have labored from the time of Adam's transgression 
until Christ's crucifixion, in which time he could not fully obtain man's restora- 
tion and reconciliation, until he was offered a sacrafice for them, and removed 
to another place, to labor in another sphere ; and at this period of time, with 
the slight exception of Paul's being born out of due time, we will introduce 
Annanias as the second laborer, and send him to " The house of Judas for 
one Saul of Tarsus : for behold, he prayeth." Thus the first laborer, the sa- 
vior of the world, although he had gone home to be one with the father again, 
yet as a mediator between God and man, he could hear poor Saul praying from 
the house of Judas, and send Annanias with a portion of his quickening spirit, 

*The study of this man-woman, man, and Christ, is a great study, but in its infancy 
it is desirable and attainable of man, and acceptable unto God. Christ being head of 

BVERY man, and the head of the woman, the man proves that thore was a man before the 
fall, and one after the fall, this agrees with the first Adam, a living soul, and it also 

agrees with death and a resurrection coming by man. 



19 

to lay it upon Saul, that he might receive in return, Saul's carnal things as a 
gospel hire. 

And through the abundance of want that this hire supplied, we read, that 
the church had rest, or ij^other words, before the last laborer labors any con- 
siderable length of time, a mighty reformation breaks out, in which he sees the 
fruits of the first laborer coming in bountifully, as in the days of Pentecost, in 
the acts of the Apostles, in which the people brought their books, counted the 
price, and laid it at the Apostles' feet, 

Or as in 1st Corinthians ix. 11: "If we have sown unto you spiritual 
things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?" The first labor- 
er sowed in the mind of Saul, or in the church, things spiritual ; and the last 
laborer with his spiritual weapon, which was mighty through God, reaped there 
carnal things as his hire. 

St. John, vi. 36 : " And he that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth 
fruit unto life eternal." 38th : " 1 sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed 
no labor ; other men (Moses and Christ,) labored, and ye entered into their 
labors." «' That he that planteth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." 
The last laborer beholds them giving up their self-righteousness for the pure 
righteousness that the first laborer sowed or planted in their hearts. Are we 
not all dependent creatures, dependent upon the Almighty and Eternal wise 
God for every blessing ? 

The second laborer is but an instrument in the hands of the first,* in whom 
the glory and grandeur of the pay must virtually centre, as so many diamonds 
in the stars of the crown of him who was the head of Joseph. In this the 
second laborer but bears the carnal things unto the first laborer, and he turns 
them away into tophet.f Thus the true laborers will rejoice together, they are 
the true shepherds of the sheep, and the ministers of the gospel. J 1st Corin- 
thians, ix, 10 : "That he that plougheth should plough in hope," as the first 
laborer ploughed, " and that he that thresheth in hope, should be partaker of 
his hope," as was the last minister. 

Although the first laborer reaped no wages more than a consciousness that he 
was in his place, doing the will of God in Christ Jesus, for the maintenance of 
which he received his daily meat and bread from Heaven, as the Saviour him- 
self said : " I have meat to eat that ye know not of." His labors were fi-ee. 
In extending the gospel seed of the kingdom, he bled and died in the end of 
the world, that his followers might receive the kingdom. And now he wants 
no pressed men, man is his own free agent, to give up his carnal things, to the 
last laborer, or minister, that I have presented, or to keep them to his own des- 
truction,§ as Simon the sorcerer thought to do, by giving money, and as some 
modern churches do, by purposing to pay for gospel labor in an external main- 
tenance ; or killing the toothache with pain-killer. Such men are cowards, 
and they presume too much upon that mercy that they are not worthy of. If 

* We all know what an instrument is in the hands of a Physician, 
t A dentist's forceps ; Isaiah xxx, 33. 

JQod makes his angels ministers, and his ministers a flame of fire. 
§ Toothache as painful for the physician to haul as for the patient. 



20 

any should inquire after the laborer's need of these carnal things, my answer 
is, that probably there is not grace, faith, love, hope, &c., enough in the hearts 
of the ministers at the present day, to stimulate them to the work, without thus 
beholding the fruits of thou labor, or receiving a little external pay. 1 st Tim- 
othy v. 17,18. # 

17, " Let the elder that rules well be counted worthy of double honor." — 
18, "For the scripture saith. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out 
the corn. And, The laborer is worthy of his reward." My argument is, that 
the minister that practices, as well as preaches in the demonstration of grace, 
and in the power of the quickening spirit of Christ, receives the bread and 
meat, or the corn that the ox is not to be muzzled from, in the grace of God, 
as his maintenance in the gospel labor. This grace would have been directly to 
the people, had not God seen fit to save the world through the foolishness of 
preaching. 

Thus to acknowledge the minister endowed with the bread of heaven, to feed 
the people with words is one honor. And that his works are worthy of being 
imitated, and that he posesses power in the quickening spirit of Christ, to give 
the holy-ghost unto men, by virture of which he is worthy to reap their carnal- 
mindedness and have it offset to his double honor an honor, that few ministers 
of this day are worthy of. And they that don't thus count him worthy, are 
not in the narrow way that leadeth by the straight gait into the new and spirit- 
ual Jerusalem. 

Probably the apostle Paul would have continued his gospel labor without 
thus beholding its fruits. 

He seemed to glory in this course; his faith was so great that he says, in 1st 
Corinthians ix. 14, 15, 16, 18, 22, 23 : 16 ; "Wo is unto "me, if I preach not 
the gospel !" (" Though doubtless many are not saved"). 18 ; " What is my 
reward then r" (A clear conscience from the blood of all men, which in the 
sight of God is of great price). 

" Verily, that when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ 
without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel." There was no oth- 
er chance for free-agency in salvation, than that the apostles take the place of 
Christ in his presence, and act in his absence as delegated shepherds over his 
flock, thereby filling the measure of suffering left behind, by them to be filled. 
Paul imitated the savior in this, the savior went up and down in the world 
doing good, but none of his followers received the holy-ghost, during the time 
of his personal stay on earth. 

Judas hung himself, Peter denied his master, and the rest of the disciples 
fled. And yet he extended more gospel than any other man that ever yet 
lived. 

Paul seemed duty bound to imitate the savior in sowing the seed for the spu- 
itual kingdom, and in weeding and watching over it until harvest time, not to 
purify the ground from weeds, and their seeds ; or the heart from carnal 
thoughts, until God saw best so to do. 

He seemed to realize that to make too early a harvest, doing it merely for the 
sake of a reformation, was not good, but that it was his business to labor as in 



21 

the spring and youth of the soul, not with the sickle, but with the gospel 
plough, that those amongst whom he labored, might sow bountifully, and reap 
bountifully. Thus the grace of God that abounded in him, made the knowledge 
of sin to abound in those among whom he labored, (allow'ing them, as a gener- 
al rule, some thirty years to sow their wild oats,) in due time their known sins 
to be his, or some other one's hire. 

In the 22d verse he says : '♦ I am made all things to all men, that I might by 
all means save some." 23 : " And this I do for the gospel sake, that I might 
be partaker thereof with you." It seems from these two passages of scripture, 
that Paul, to use his own expressions, saved some for the gospel sake. It 
seems from this chat the gospel urged it upon him at times when he saw a soul 
ripe, all ready to harvest,* and that he might be partaker of the hire with the 
rest of the apostles. 14 : *• Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which 
preach the gospel should live of the gospel." That they see the travels of 
Zion, and receive the carnal- mindedness of the people, as their hire. Or that 
they clear themselves from the blood of all people, receiving their maintenance 
in the grace of God ; with an assurance that in God's own time the reward of 
their labor will be given them. The word '• they," in the last cited text, refers 
to the two laborers of whom I have treated, in part, showing you that by the 
two, fruit is gathered into life eternal, by the giving of the holy ghost, and that 
carnal-mindedness, which is death, is gathered out of the kingdom, as the hire 
and reward of their labors. Therefore I will cut sticks, and wirjd up my re- 
marks on this point, although I should be glad to lengthen them if the minute- 
ness of my address would give me place. But as it is, a word to the wise is 
sufficient. So adieu, do well, and farewell, and may the grace of God go with 
you, wooing and inviting you, with myself, until we meet again in Christ's 
coming kingdom, again to celebrate love and good will toward each other. 

♦See Acta xvii, 18. , (^-^^ /llj3iAi ,T '^'. 'y V 



CHAPTER VI. 

1st Corintluans, ix. 15: "But I have used none of these things; (11th 
verse: "Your carnal things, the gospel hire ;") neither have I written these 
things that it should be so done unto me ; for it were better for me to die than 
that any man should make my glorying void." 

" For necessity is laid upon me," and " If I do this thing willingly I have 
a reward." Paul expressed these sentiments some eighteen hundred years ago, 
having in view the glorious principles of a free gospel labor, and of the reward 
of " well done good and faithful servants, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord," 
take the talent from him that hath not ; bind him, and cast him into outer 
darkness : for whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven. 

The Saviour knew who would betray him, and probably Paul knew that 
some would not give up their carnal things, to pay for gospel labor, whilst 
others would; therefore, he says in the 2oth verse, in speaking of those who la- 
bor for these carnal things as their hire : " Now they do it to obtain a corrupt- 
ible crown." And in the 6th verse he says ; '< Or I only and Barnabas, have 
we not power to (demand this hire, and,) forbear working." But Paul looked 
beyond this corruptible crown for his reward. In the last clause of the 2oth 
verse, he says : " But we (labor for) an incorruptible." " 20th verse, " So 
fight I, not as one that beateth the air." I ask, does not the Apostle Paul's 
writings show plainly that his glory was in a free gospel labor; even if it termi- 
nate in his death ?* for the free will choice of his hearers, to give up their car- 
nal things to pay for his gospel labor, or to retain them to their destruction ? 
knowing that one day he would obtain their incorruptible crown as a reward 
of his free labor, if he did not receive their corruptible as his hire. 

In the choice of this hire, or reward, I have shown you that he resigned all 
to the will of God ; in that he said it was necessity, and that he ♦' saved for the 
gospel sake," and not for his own, but for the people. 

And when he received his hire, by robbing other churches taking wages of 
them, he did it for the service of the church that was needy, and not for him- 
self; for he said : " I have used none of these things ; God sent me not to bap- 
tise, but to preach the gospel." Even so, if I rob you of your carnal things,t 
such as envying, strife, and division, I do it to preach the everlasting gospel, 
and for the gospel's sake,and your sake,that you may be placed on the true foun- 
dation of love and imity ;J and for the service of the other double-eyed church, 
the christian associationist, that they may see themselves in your returning 
from darkness to the light , that they may refrain from their eternal hire, and 

* You may sense this death by spiritualising it into ray death of soul, if you reject this, 
and have charity for my desires after you, and not yours. 
tSee Ist Corinthians, iii. 8. 
1: See Acta lx.81. 



23 

cleave unto the true hire ; lest I offset the true hire from you against them, and 
so take their reward. 

And that Paul died to leave these principles to us, we have no reason to 
doubt. History informs us that he died WTong end up, as the Romans would 
have it, but did they not crucify him because he would not renounce the prin- 
ciples of free gospel labor, and fall in with them, in restraining gospel la- 
bor, and in granting indulgences in hell-sustaining and God-defying licentious- 
ness ? And if he has thus died, and is thereby deprived of the jJrivilege of 
vmdicating his principles, ought we not to crown his free gospel labor unto our- 
selves, by imitating him as he imitated Christ ? And ought we not to be found 
interceding for our fellow man, instead of envying him ? Or can we see our- 
selves as we really are, and then expect the crown that lies at the end of the 
christian race, in any other course ? If not, I beg of you that for your own 
sakes, and the gospel's sake, that you will give up all envying and strife, and 
division, and put on charity, humility, and love, each party preferring the other 
to themselves ; that union may prevail over discord and division. That an- 
other may not take your incorruptible crown. Not that I am not willing longer 
to stem the current of opposition, and to wade through the battle-field, if it 
be the will of God that I should, for I hope, as a good soldier in Christ, " to 
accuse no man falsely, and to be content with my wages," whether I receive 
them now or at the judgment bar. I may have been abrupt, but the more ab- 
rupt, the more I owe you for your charity. Had Balaam cursed Israel, we 
know not but that the result on Israel had been, in part, as great as that on 
theHixites, caused by (our venerable father in Israel,) Thomas Sheletoes curs- 
ing Elias Hix. He doubtless done it in a blind, superstitious zeal, as the Jews 
rejected the yoke of Christ. For the good man I have the utmost charity, and 
yet I am constrained to beheve that if he and his party had laid out half the 
labor in love for Hix' good, that they did to expose him as a malefactor and 
blasphemer, they might have gained him to the church as the greatest reformer 
that she ever held up, excepting Christ and Paul. 

And had Israel laid their own hands upon Sampson when delivering him up 
to the Phillistines, we know not but that the result had ended in Sampson's 
death, and Israel's bondage ; as in this day our laying our hands upon Wilbur 
may terminate in the banishment of the true guide, and in the bondage of the 
Gumey party. You may say that if a work is of God it cannot be overthrown. 
This is very true, but it is a fearfnl thing to fall into the hands of the living 
God. 

And after Isaac's blindness, in which he could not see who God blessed, if 
he had blessed Esau, Esau had been blessed for the time being, although bet- 
ter for him never to have been bom. And Gumey's party blessing Gumey 
is sufficient cause why God has not moved this work into operation before. — 
Therefore we see the need we have of each other, as a help, not as a hurt ; that 
the hand should not say to the foot, I have no need of thee, except we wish 
to enter halt and maimed into life. 

And besides these inward conflicts, the Wilbur party are subject to the lia- 
bility of being drafted into public action, in a civil war between the North ^nd 



i* 



24 

South of this Hepublic, while the Qumey party are exempt from the painful 
task. 

And the Wilbur party who cannot conscientiously maintain their own min- 
isters, are subject to the liability of a parish tax, whilst those that believe in 
maintaining their ministers are exempt from a priest tax by law, as a church 
right, purchased by the imprisonment and blood of the predecessors of both 
parties. I have barely alluded to the Hixite division, to show that I believe 
that God will visit with division after division, until he destroys us as a people, or 
•until he sets us right. And we are never right until rid of all party spirit and 
superstition, and until we get the true judgment of God. And I desire to be 
preserved from lifting one prayer in behalf of either party, aside from a union 
in the bond of love and perfectness. 



CHAPTER VII. 

A WORD OF COUNSEL TO BOTH PARTIES. 

*" And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they 
give, for the laborer is worthy of his hire." 

'• And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, the kingdom of 
God is come nigh unto you." 

«' And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John." 
By these three passages of scripture we see that there was a hire ordained in 
the gospel, and that the minister was commanded to heal the sick, and that 
they did heal the sick. And shame On the minister that is so selfish and world- 
ly as to demand this hire, and not perform the labor required. 

I have said in a previous chapter that Joseph J. Gurney had gone to his long 
home ; I would he were in time, but he is too late ; but his guard is here in 
time, and I demand of them a defence of his principles ; and if they refuse so 
to act, I demand it of his church, the Gurney church ; and if they refuse to 
defend his principles, I ask them what reasons they have to give for leaving 
Friends, or the Wilberites ? And if they have no reasons, I counsel them to 
speedily return to their former landmark, lest they be lost. And as the Wil- 
ber party have done wrong in separating from the Gurney party, I ccmnsel 



ii5 

them to hasten to m°et their brethren half way. Ani to " mark thsm which 
cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, 
and avoid them ; for they that are such, serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but 
their own belly ; and by good words and fair spaeches deceive the hearts of the 
simple." *But yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and sim- 
ple concerning evil." 

I have seen the church that protests as largely against the external hire of 
the gospel as the Gurney Church does, stop their minister even after' he had 
approached the minister's desk to offer the closing benediction,requesting him to 
wait until they raised a collection, which I understood to be to pay the expense 
of his journey from his home to Durham, a distance of seventy-five or eighty 
miles, and to maintain him whilst at their Association. I saw money put into 
that contribution, and that, too, before said closing prayer was offered, — money 
that I think should have been laid out for the comforts of the donor's poor and 
needy children. All this I have seen in the town of Durham within the past 
two years. 

The evil of such a practice is more than the sympathising man can bear. 
The evil of this external hire or maintenance is the evil that I wanl you to be 
simple concei-ning. And the good of the true hire is the good that I want you 
to be " wise concerning," that the love of Jesus may dwell in you, that you 
may be "the salt of the earth," "the light of the world," and as a ♦' city set 
on a hill, that cannot be hid ;" that you may draw all men uiito you through 
the virtue of the staff and rod of God, that the world with you and you with 
the world may become that happy people whose God is the Lord. One word 
more and I close this volume. I have said that the scriptures were to be taken 
in a spiritual sense : I will select one of the poorest passages that I know of to 
prove it from, viz : " Thou shalt not steal." This to the natural man who de- 
sireth not the things of God, looks like a plain declaration to be followed out- 
wardly, but although this was not the intention of scripture, yet it shall be ful- 
filled ; because if we steal one another's goods and chattels we have a law 
against such theft without going to the bible for it. Also, this theory of link- 
ing church and state, is a false theory ; as by both old and new testament, 
when taken outwardly, we can prove that slavery had a divine sanction, and 
that dancing &c., &c., is justifiable. 

Joshua affirmed that the sun stood still ; literally construing this expression 
of Joshua, the astrologers of the present day affirm by the almanac, that the 
sun rises, and still they positively assert that she stands still. A spiritual con- 
struction vrould show us that we rise, and not the sun. 

Therefore, for our proof, let us examine Burkley's Apology, page 282, 
" Christ the door :" John, x, 1. They, the three, Christ, John, and Berkley, 
say, all are thieves that climb up some other way, whom the sheep ought not 
to hear. Absalom stole the hearts of Israel from David, as the hireling 
preacher steals the hearts of the people from the inward hire, by pro- 
claiming an outward hire. They also bear false v/itness, and cause the people 
to do the same, by omitting the inward, and accusing the church of owing the 
minister an outward m^aintenance. 



26 

The omitting of said spiritual construction of sciipture, and fulfillifig the 
outward construction, to attain salvation, is the very sense of the word in which 
all men are called liars,t and all hireling ministers, thieves and robbers. 

Romans, vi. 23 : " The wages of sin are death," and this death is the hire of 
the gospel. "The gift of God is eternal life." And when God works this 
gift in our hearts, we are to work out the wages of sin and death, or our own 
soul's salvation with fear and trembling ; then may we be truly called Qua- 
kers, and not Gurneyites and Wilberites, the modern fledge. 

Acts xiv. 19. If I am stoned for writing this address, as was Stephen and 
Paul, I shall be grieved, but inasmuch as I have written amiss, I hope the Da- 
vids in Israel will select the smooth stones from the brook, and aim them with 
the shepherd's sling, directly at my forehead, convincing my reasoning facul- 
ties, believing that they were given rae for a wise purpose, also believing that 
they have a connection with the heart, the seat of thought and the temple of 
God. 

And that every blessing of God may rest down upon you, is the desire of 
your unworthy friend and fellow-servant, for you. 

A year ago I withdrew my appeal from the quarterly-meeting, of which I 
was a member, because the iron was not hot, but now it has a welding heat, 
and I strike, and if there is not too much dross between the parties they will 
be united. 

If they are like Christ, who said, " the world hateth me, it will also hate 
you," then they will give up the forms and ceremonies of the world, no longer 
waiting for these dead forms to arise and give them light, they will arise them- 
selves and come to the light. They are their own agents, and will choose 
eternal life in preference to eternal death, that the hedge and the highAvay-man 
may not be compelled to come in in theu- places, — that God's house may be 
filled with free gospel laborers. 

t See Romans iii. 4. , and Psalms cxvi. 11. 

The " Peculiabities," a work to which frequent reference has been ma de in the^e pajres 
are in the Gurneyites' librarigs and held in esteem by them. The Gur rejites and ^^ il- 
berites were the society of Friends or Quakers of New Engbind previous to the Gurne>ite 
division. And now they hold two separate yearly .meetings the same day and the same 
hour of the day, and within two or three hundred rods of each other. But the Northerly 
quarters, particularly the State of Maine have gone Gurneyites. [See 1 1th page of this 
work. 



6 18 



EJ 



In volume one, 
1 have begun ; 
In volume two, 
1 will go lhrouo;h. 
If this reaps the tin, 
And don't the sin ; 
And you will pay the press, 
You again I will address. 
I have shown you in this scrall, 
A branch of the subdivision small. 
It is reason therefore, that I should 
Satun's grand-division make good. 
Shewing you the Devil in the hall. 
And the Saviour in the stall. 
And my love lor the truth, and my claim in the Society of Friends, 
from which I was bat Ished, demands it. 

BiiuxswiCK, Jan., 1830. -i^X&^^fteMSii^fiS^fgES. 



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